We've learned not to mention our address, because it makes people assume we're super wealthy. In fact we were just lucky; about four years ago we were looking for a new place when a good friend of ours was looking for new tenants to look after her flat here.

It's definitely a place built for show: there are always tourists outside taking photos, and in the evenings you can sometimes hear a horse and a carriage driving past outside.

Regency architecture is decorative and ostentatious, which can be both a blessing and a burden. All the buildings on the Circus are Grade-I-listed, so on the outside they haven't been altered much since they were built in the mid-18th century. You aren't allowed satellite dishes or anything like that. The stairs down into the basement have been blocked off, but the original fireplaces and ceiling mouldings are still intact. In our lounge we have the original huge sliding doors. The ceilings are their original height.

These buildings make very good, quiet flats, because they were so well built, out of solid, thick stone. All the bedrooms are at the back of the house, overlooking the gardens. You never hear your neighbours – and I think that's something that has been lost in modern buildings. Even though it's a flat, it feels more like a house.

We're both from South Africa, where things are a lot more spacious than in Britain – inside and out. When you first come to England everything feels so tiny, you almost feel claustrophobic. So these huge rooms brought back that familiar sense of space. The flipside, of course, is being South Africans, we like the heat, so our gas bills tend to be high.

We recently heard that Jane Austen used to take tea with friends in our house. It didn't faze us much, but when my parents heard they went crazy.

Living here has taught us to appreciate this kind of historic building in a new way. As South Africans, we don't really live for the past, but living here has taught us to look at the past in a new way.